Inglis and Broun in Douglas, Lanarkshire

Agnes Inglis and Richard Brown were married in 1705 in Douglas parish - and named one of their children Cornelius (er, that’s two, because the first one died young). Where was she from? How did this name ‘Cornelius’ get into this family?

The answers appear to lie in the small parish of Douglas, in South Lanarkshire, or as it was then ‘Upper Lanarkshire’. After the marriage of Agnes Inglis and Richard Broun in 1705, there is an account in the Kirk Session minutes that name them as anticipating the wedding a wee bit, and their first child was termed ‘bastard’ although the parents were certainly married well before his birth. It should be remembered that Douglas was in the heart of Covenanting country, and hence the terminology may be expected - for this couple and for many others too.

The children of Agnes Inglis and Richard Broun, in Douglas, were:

John, born 1705Cornelius 1707Jean 1710James 1812Agnes 1714Cornelius 1717 - this being the Cornelius who married Helen KyleBarbara 1719John 1721

From this, the surmise is that Richard Broun’s parents were John Broun and Agnes - bourne out by Kirk Session records which name his mother as Agnes Inglis, Alewife in the parish of Douglas and by that time widowed, and a Hearth Tax record showing a John Inglis, merchant in Douglas - and Agnes Inglis’s parents were Agnes and Cornelius. And indeed there is evidence of Cornelius Inglis of Scrogto(u)n, a farm just north-west of Douglas village, and his wife Agnes Lithgow. Agnes Inglis was born before the start of the baptism records we have from Douglas parish, but there is a Testament Dative for Agnes Lithgow, wife of Cornelius Inglis of Scrogtoun, and Kirk Session evidence for sons William and James also in (or of) Scrogton. There is also a testament dative for James son of Cornelius, dying in 1712 with his brother William as executor, and later in the 1730s there are rent records for another James, tenanting Scrogton from the Douglas estate.

(Inglises go further back in Scrogton, until at least the 1560s, and this may form matter for another page…)

Richard Broun became a mason in Douglas, and according to the Kirk Session minutes had sisters Mary (married to James Inglis, writer in Douglas) and Barbara. The Kirk Session records give a fair bit of ‘gossip’ about them and various other Inglises in the parish, from the 1690s to the 1720s.

At some point the family of Richard Broun and Agnes Inglis moved to Glasgow. Richard is shown to move, as a mason, in these early KS records, so that there may be have been early associations with other towns including Glasgow. However the burial record of Agnes Inglis is in Glasgow, and identifies her as widow of Richard Brown, mason in Douglas - thus giving good evidence for the movement to Glasgow, and hence enabling the connection with the Glasgow/Govan/Gorbals Brown weaver family.